A healthy lifestyle involves good diet and regular exercise. Poor diet and/or little or no regular exercise can have long term adverse health impacts. For example, a person who has a poor diet and who exercises infrequently (or not at all) may be obese, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and in many instances a reduced immune system. For these reasons, many doctors and other health industry experts strongly recommend a lifestyle having both a good diet along with a regular exercise routine. Unfortunately, time constraints and/or fiscal restraints reduce the ability for many people to practice such a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, an injury or other medical condition may reduce a person's ability to obtain regular exercise.
Swimming is recognized to be one of the most beneficial exercise activities. Swimming is known to be a highly aerobic exercise which works many different muscle groups in both the upper and lower body. Swimming also has little or no impact on joints, unlike many other exercise activities. For example, running is known to cause significant joint damage in many individuals who participate in the sport over the long term. Swimming is many times therefore a very beneficial exercise routine for many people, providing many benefits while consuming relatively little time.
Swimming provides a cardiovascular workout due to the significant amount of activity involved. In many cases, this cardiovascular workout is equivalent or superior to, for example, running or cycling. In addition to the cardiovascular workout, swimming also provides an efficient and significant upper and/or lower body muscle workout. Many different forms of swimming may be practiced to exercise different muscle groups. For example, a crawl stroke provides a workout to arm muscles including the biceps and triceps, chest muscles including pectoral muscles, abdominal muscles, and back muscles including lats. The breast stroke provides a workout to arm muscles including the biceps and triceps, chest muscles including the pectorals, abdominal muscles, and back muscles including the lats. The back stroke provides a workout to similar muscle groups as well.
Many people recognize the positive aspect of swimming, and may desire to integrate swimming into their exercise routine, but choose to use other exercises as their primary aerobic/muscle exercises because of convenience. For example, many people may not have access to a swimming pool, and thus are not able to conveniently participate in a regular swimming exercise routine. Furthermore, certain people may have access to a swimming pool but still not swim because of the requirement to be submersed in water, which may be inconvenient, uncomfortable, and/or impossible. Some people may be restricted from swimming in water for medical reasons, such as, for example, recent surgery. Further, other people may prefer not to swim for more personal reasons, such as a dislike or fear of water, and some people may prefer not to be seen in a bathing suit.